Rapid Development by Dan Schuyler

Sussex touts lakefront condos while charting new W. Loop office

“East Side, West Side, all around the town.”

The catchy verse from the song Sidewalks of New York might have been the corporate mantra for the Starbucks empire in its early days, and in the world of real estate, it’s a tune Sussex & Reilly co-founder Sean Conlon began humming, Chicago-style, a very few years ago.

That’s when Conlon opened the first office of Sussex & Reilly – now Sussex & Reilly Century 21 – with six people in Roscoe Village. Conlon, however, has added his own verse and it goes something like this: “Once you’ve seen Starbuck’s arrive, you’re too late.”

In Roscoe Village a Starbucks has arrived, across the street from Sussex, along with a breathtaking boom in new condominiums, upscale restaurants and trendy boutiques that followed the opening of the brokerage, at 2044 W. Roscoe.

There is no Starbucks yet on the 1100 block of West Lake Street, where Conlon and partner Liz Scheffler plan to open a fourth Sussex office this summer, but that suits them just fine.

“Part of the plan for our company over the next five years includes the establishment of offices in areas where there is a natural progression of businesses and real estate development and in locations which presently are underserved by our profession,” Scheffler says. “The West and South Loop areas fall into both categories.”

The firm has leased 7,000 square feet of ground floor space in a completely rehabbed former warehouse turned chic loft, at 1101 W. Lake. The West Loop office will start off with a staff of 20 salespeople, and the capacity for nearly 100. The firm’s other offices, in Lakeview (Roscoe Village), Lincoln Park, and Lincoln Square collectively house 100 residential sales personnel and 12 commercial agents.

While development has boomed in central neighborhoods such as the West Loop and South Loop, Realtors have neglected the area, a gap Sussex hopes to fill, according to Conlon.

“There is enormous market inconsistency,” Conlon says. “Developers are darting in and out, doing a project and leaving. There is no cohesiveness. We want to go there and serve these needs. The area is fraught with cutting edge spaces and locations.”

While Conlon sees a major opportunity for resales in the emerging South Loop and West Loop areas, Sussex & Reilly also has gained a reputation for marketing new construction in established lakefront neighborhoods. Conlon describes two projects the firm currently is selling as “real gems” with “exquisite” finish work.

That according to Conlon, is the trademark of brothers Pete and Mike Walsh, who started Walsh Development eight years ago. The detail-oriented approach seems to be serving them well. At press time, only one unit remained for sale at Walsh’s new condo building at 3601 N. Southport. The two-bedroom duplex on the third floor includes a den and is priced at $469,000.

Designed by architects Pappageorge Haymes, the project took just over a year to go from concept to completion. The ten-unit building, which Pete Walsh says was designed to appeal to both contemporary and traditional tastes, is the first U.S. location for Austrian coffee and pastry firm Julius Meinl, which has opened a large café on the ground floor.

A newer Walsh project, at 802 W. Wolfram, also sits on a corner site that allowed for creative design.
“One unique aspect of this building is the 67-foot lot size (instead of the usual 50), which is not found very often, and this has enabled us to construct wider units than usual,” Walsh says.

The building, designed by the Vari architectural firm, includes two ground-floor duplexes with private entrances. The upper floors each house two units and a foyer, accessed by a semi-private elevator, and unit interiors also have private foyers in a unique “double foyer” configuration.

The development will be completed by mid-summer. Prices range from the $520s to the $640s including garage parking, and the units range from 1,900 to 2,600 square feet.

“What sets our company and our projects apart from others is our rapt attention to quality and detail,” Walsh says. “All of the units in both buildings have fireplaces, terraces, and an abundance of natural light. All of the top floor units have an unobstructed view of the city. We provide quality finishes and high-end appliances…lots of stainless, marble and granite.”

At press time, five of the ten condos at the Wolfram project had been sold. As for the future plans of Walsh Development, Walsh points out that he spent twelve years with Amoco Oil before becoming an entrepreneur, “so I have been known to think big.”

As have Conlon and Scheffler, of Sussex & Reilly. When they met in 2001, Sussex was in its second year of operation, and Scheffler headed up the Century 21 United Group, with six offices in Lake County and two in DuPage. Both companies were looking for opportunities to expand, and in January of last year they combined to form Sussex & Reilly Century 21.

“The merger gave us a very solid base,” Scheffler says. “It combined the suburban residential market with Sussex & Reilly’s development expertise and the higher priced Chicago market. One important facet of our future plans includes the opening of North Shore locations, thereby closing the geographical gap between the Chicago-based offices and the north suburban operation.

“Internally, we think we have the most seamless real estate operation in the area,” Scheffler says. “Certainly we are the most advanced technologically. All of our people carry wireless PDAs (personal digital assistants), connecting them to the Internet and to our centralized scheduling system. Everyone in the company knows what everyone else is doing at all times…These are energetic, dedicated, highly motivated people.”